In the past couple of days, there has been a sizable amount of noise in the blogosphere about the editorial piece that Senator-in-Waiting, Link Byfield, wrote in this past weekend's Calgary Sun. The piece, which spoke in favour of Alberta separation from Canada, quoted former U of A Prof Leon Craig's recently written paper supporting Alberta separatism (which no one wants to publish). Duh, I wonder why.
Now, I'm going to lay it all out. I have absolutely no tolerance for the tiny right-wing fringe that so desperately wants Alberta to leave Canada. I have NEVER heard an argument in favour of Alberta separatism that has reached beyond the usual wing-nut banter and paranoid xenophobia. Until this group of crazy right-wing 60-year old white guys come up with a better argument than "because the Liberals suck" or "because of Trudeau and the NEP," I will no longer waste space on this blog dignifying their bunkness.
These extremists do not represent the views of even a fraction of mainstream Alberta society and their main competitor will continue to be the Alberta Communist Party. These people do not speak for Albertans, just like I don't speak for Albertans.
They speak for themselves, the small disgruntled crazy-right. These are the same crazies that thought Stockwell Day was too much of a socialist to lead the Canadian Alliance, the same crazies that post on the Free Dominion webboards, and the same crazies that thought Canada would suffer the rath of God if C-38 was passed. These guys are loonies.
Wow, that felt good to get that off of my chest. Thanks.
If you are still interested, there are posts on this topic at Go Political, MyBlahg, A View from Calgary, and Calgary Grit.
UPDATE: Sheamus Murphy at The Muck Shoveller has written an awesome post on this topic.
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Daveberta: Thanks. That felt good to hear as well. The progressive/liberal blogs have lit up on his comments, but, interestingly and very tellingly, the old Tory/red Tory/conservative but not-wingnut blogs have been carefully quiet. I would have thought that the Western Standard might have blogged something, but even on the right no one seems to want to go near this column.
ReplyDeleteTake it from me, there are one too many crazed republics out there as it is.
ReplyDelete:P
bunkness? can i use that word?
ReplyDeletedo you know dr. craig? is he of the morton crowd, i.e. failed american academics who want to make alberta a colony.
Mme. Presidente of Holtopia: LOL
ReplyDeleteHow is your war againt logarithms and the neighbourhood children going?
cerb: I also noticed their quietness. Talk about suspicious...
ReplyDeleterobert: I've never had a class with Dr. Craig, but I hear his focus was on political philosophy (Plato, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Nietzsche) and not Canadian or Alberta politics. He just recently retired from the U of A.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the U of A website:
"He received his BA from Univ. of Washington and his PhD from Univ. of Illinois."
(http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/polisci
/nav03.cfm?nav03=36452&nav02=13021&n
av01=12999)
From the perspective of game theory, the 'separation card' is akin to a 'credible threat'. I think you ought to be careful in labelling western separatists as wingnuts, as there are plenty of separatists who defy such gross stereotyping. Read some of the blog entries by Alberta blogger, Civiatatensis.
ReplyDeleteThe battleground is in the rural ridings, where the conservatives took 70 something like percent of the seats with only 47 percent of the popular vote.
On the other hand, any poll done in Calgary or any political sentiments coming out of there would be weighted pro-American. Not every American in Calgary can vote.
I have NEVER heard an argument in favour of Alberta separatism that has reached beyond the usual wing-nut banter and paranoid xenophobia.
ReplyDeleteHow about: "Alberta gets less out of confederation than it puts in. Separating would allow us to keep more of our money and use it to help Albertans instead of other Canadians."
I don't think that's enough to justify separation, and I think it's a naive way of determining the value of a political union. But I wouldn't call it "wing nut banter" or "paranoid xenophobia."
I still think it's "wing-nut banter. Heaven forbid we contribute to the rest of Canada, we are the richest province, we can afford it.
ReplyDeleteWe'll expect Canada to contribute to us when our economy tanks (which it eventually will) and the wing-nuts will belly ache when they think we're not getting enough.
For a province that has taken "boom" and "bust" to whole new levels in it's history, I think economic arguments for separation are a little rich.
ReplyDeleteMackenzie King kept Alberta and the other Prairie provinces alive during the depression.
"People remember the late seventies. And they reside in rural ridings. And, their votes are worth 1.5 times as much as votes for other parties."
ReplyDeleteI think you mean "other ridings" but yeah, gerrymandering is a funny thing....
Grr..this guy got his degree from the University of Washington?? I got my degree from the University of Washington!! I'm alerting the "liberal elite" back in Seattle as we speak. He will be quartered and hanged over Puget Sound. What a loser!
ReplyDelete